Dairy Farming Amongst the Santhal Tribe of India : Empirical Evidence on Knowledge and Adoption of Improved Dairy Farming Practices from Burdwan District of West Bengal

The Santhal are generally engaged in agriculture, household activities and livestock rearing. Ninety dairy farmers from the Santhal community who possessed at least two milch animals were selected from the three purposively selected blocks i.e Jamalpur, Raina - I and Kalna - II of Burdwan district as respondents. With regard to existing dairy farming practices, traditional and recommended practices co-existed almost equally. Majority of the farmers adhered to the existing folk beliefs in that community. These folk beliefs seemed to be deep rooted in their culture. Majority (71.11 %) of the Santhal had medium level of knowledge about improved dairy farming practices respectively followed by high (15.56%) and low (13.33%). Like knowledge, majority (72.22 %) of the Santhal had medium level of adoption followed by high (16.67%) and low (11.11%) level of adoption as far as improved dairy farming practices are concerned. Variables like education, time spent on dairying, social participation, land holding, herd size, mass media exposure, knowledge regarding improved dairy farming practices had positive and significant influence on adoption of improved dairy farming practices.